【推荐1】For the love of reading

The importance of nurturing (培养) young children as readers has become more and more apparent. Here are four ways to help your child become a reader.

A six-year study found reading aloud to children every day puts them almost a year ahead of children who do not receive daily read-alouds.     1     Using texts above the children’s levels gives them the chance to hear high-level vocabulary and absorb complex language structures. Reading aloud below their levels also allows them to relax and enjoy beloved texts.

    2     Use picture book illustrations to strike up deeper questions and conversations. Ask questions you don’t know the answers to so that children will be able to answer in ways that reflect their own ideas.

Entering the world of stories and knowledge should feel like an exciting discovery process. Create visual ways to track the journey. From a reading minute tracker to a “words we learned” or “our big ideas” chart, we can use these visuals to pause for “hip hiphooray (欢呼)” moments.

Children become great readers by finding connections as they read.     4     “I notice you like books where animals are the main characters.” “I notice you like books where girls are strong characters.” Even the youngest child will begin to recognize that each person’s reading choices matter.

    5     A child who sees reading as a lifelong, constant companion is more likely to have a lifetime of success.

【推荐3】Have you ever had the experience of talking to someone and you think they are lying? Well, you are not alone. We’ve all had that feeling. But did you know that there are several things you can look for to see if you are being lied to?

Sometimes you can tell if a person is lying by observing what they do with their body. When people are lying they tend not to move their arms, hands or legs very far form their body. They don’t want to take up very much space because they don’t want to be noticed. Sometimes a person who is lying will not look you in the eyes. Other times people who lie try to look at you in a strong way because they want to convince you they are telling the truth.

Liars also use deflection. For example, if you ask a liar the question“did you steal Fatima’s bag?”，they may answer with something like“Fatima is my friend, why would I do that?”in this situation the person is telling the truth, but they are also not answering the question. They are trying to deflect your attention. Liars may also give too many details. They may try to over-explain things. They do this because they want to convince you of what they are saying.

Often when a person is lying, they do not want to continue talking about their lie. If you think someone is lying, quickly change the subject. If the person is lying, they will appear more comfortable because they are not talking about their lie any longer. A little later, change the subject back to what you were talking about before. If the person seems uncomfortable again, they may be lying.

It’s very hard for a liar to avoid filling silence created by you. He or she wants you to believe the lies being woven; silence gives no feedback on whether or not you’ve bought the story. If you’re a good listener, you’ll already be avoiding interruptions, which in itself is a great technique to let the story unfold.

Just because a person is showing these behaviors, it doesn’t mean they are lying. They might be shy or nervous. But if you think someone is lying, you might want to use some of these techniques. Hopefully, you won’t need to very often.

【推荐1】Can exercise during childhood protect you against memory loss many decades later? Exercise early in life seems to have lifelong benefits for the brain, in rats at least.

“This is an animal study, but it shows that physical activity at a young age is very important—not just for physical development, but for the whole lifelong track of cognitive（认知的）development during ageing,”says Martin Wojtowicz of the University of Toronto, Canada.“ In humans, it may delay the appearance of Alzheimer's symptoms（阿茨海默氏症）, possibly to the point of preventing them.”

Wojtowicz’s team divided 80 young male rats into two equal groups, and placed running wheels in the cages of one group for a period of six weeks. Around four months later—when the rats had reached middle age—the team taught all the rats to connect an electric shock with being in a specific. When placed in the box, they froze with fear.

Two weeks later, the team tested the rats in three situations: exactly the same box in the same room, the same box with the room arranged differently, and a completely different box in a different room.

The rats without access to a running wheel when they were young now froze the same percentage of times in each of these situations, suggesting they couldn't remember which one was dangerous. But those that had been able to run in their youth froze 40 to 50 percent less in both changed box settings.

"The results suggest the amount of physical activity when we're young, at least for rats, has influence on brain and cognitive health—in the form of better memories—when we're older," says Arthur Kramer of Northeastern University in Boston, who has found that, in humans, exercise promotes the growth of new brain cells.

【推荐2】Playing sports is a lot of fun. Getting hurt is not.    1    

Wear protective equipment.

The equipment you wear depends on the sport you play. Helmets (头盔) are the most common protective equipment. They protect your head while you’re playing football, baseball, softball, and so on.

Warm up.

    2     Doing some stretches (伸展) can get you prepared to hit the field. By warming up, you get yourself ready to play. Practicing a sport helps keep you safe, too.

Know the rules of the games.

Traffic lights help prevent crashes between many cars that run on the road together. This works because drivers know the rules and follow them—at least most of the time.    3     When players know the rules of the game, fewer injuries happen. For example, you know that in soccer you can’t come from behind, crash into a player’s legs, or steal the ball. It’s legal and safer to go after the ball rather than the player.

    4    

This is a really important one. If you love sports, you may want to get back in the games, even after an injury. But playing when you’re hurt is a bad idea.    5    

Now you know how to prevent sports injuries. If you follow these rules, you can stay safer while you are playing sports.